Grassroots relief fund raising in North America
The Main Idea There are concerted efforts going on in various parts of North America and the rest of the world, where people are mobilizing and trying to get the word out to the masses in these countries as to how they can donate to relief efforts for the [[Earthquake 10-05|'recent earthquake in Pakistan']]. This page can form a networking point where various people can put up ideas, requests, questions, answers to the various issues that come up when trying to attempt fund raising. The underlying theme is: get as much money to organizations working on relief efforts in Pakistan. Also, it's a good way to get to know who's involved and who's doing what, so if you're comfortable with it, please say who you are when you're writing here. Contact points in specific institutions/cities * Jahanzeb Sherwani, jsherwan+pkwiki@cs.cmu.edu, PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA * Fiza Fatima Asar, fasar@mills.edu, Undergrad student at Mills College, Oakland, CA * Person 3 Plans in specific areas * Plans / organization for fund raising by students in Pittsburgh * Working to collaborate the various organizations on Mills College campus (eg: the South Asian Middle Eastern Organization, the Muslim Students Association, various other organizations of students of color) to raise funds in kind and in cash for the victims of the earthquake. * Area 3 Resources Posters * Sepoy at Chapati Mystery has made a poster. * Nadia Islam has made a poster. * Emullah has made a poster. Emails :An email taken from the sa_earthquake2005 yahoogroup. Use the sample email for asking for quake funds. Questions URGENT: Effective 'webpage for donations' needed : The administration at CMU will be putting up a webpage for donations for earthquake relief on its website. Does anyone have a well-designed page that does the job (ie, convince first-time webpage visitors that this is worth donating to) well? Please respond asap! :'Post your answer here by clicking edit. Replace this line with your response.' Experiences with fund raising efforts at universities / companies : Can people put up the results of their efforts in fundraising at their universities / companies / communities, with descriptions of what exactly your set up was, and how much money you collected in how much time? Do you have any advice on what to do, what not to do, what you think might work but haven't had the opportunity to try? This can really help other people, and also give motivation to everyone in terms of "hey, if students at the Univ of Miami can collect $2000 in 2 days, so can we!". So start writing your fund raising stories here NOW! If there are too many stories to write about, we can move it onto its own separate page later. (Jahanzeb Sherwani) :Mills College, Oakland, CA is a small private women's college. I happen to be the only (ethnic) Pakistani here so keeping all of this in mind, fund raising here is a different experience. Even then I would say, I have received a positive response by far. We started our relief effort yesterday and in one day many people have contacted me. I contacted various student organizations to collaborate and help in relief efforts. We made donation (in kind) boxes and placed them in all the buildings on campus which include academic spaces, social spaces and residence halls. We have also placed donation (in cash) jars in places where cash flow is common such as stores and cafes on campus. I have also sent out emails to all students and professors to donate money. People have talked about giving money in cheque personally to me too. As I will get more update I will report it here. In the meantime I am trying to coordinate with other colleges in the bay area. The South Asian studies department in UC Berkeley has started a relief effort and they have named various organizations where students can donate. I will try and contact their Pakistani Student Association and Muslim Students Association as well. Oh and we are also holding a fund raiser event where there will be student performances, food and a musical night. The proceedings of this event will go to the victims. (Fiza Asar) :'Post your answer here by clicking edit. Replace this line with your response.' How much have we managed to raise? : Can people keep some sort of ballpark figure of how much was raised at your institution? Doesn't need to be accurate, doesn't need to include private donations, maybe just how much was given to a public request. This way we can all know how the overall effort is going, and it can possibly also boost morale. People will need to spend hours and hours of their time at booths/tables, and only if they know it's worth it will they think about doing it. (Jahanzeb Sherwani) : :'Post your answer here by clicking edit. Replace this line with your response.' Where is the money going? : What institutions are you promoting? What success have you had with different institutions? I heard that at one place people were very hesitant to donate to Edhi, since they'd never heard of it, but were very happy to donate a lot to the Red Cross. Whatever preferences we may have as fund raisers with respect to one specific organization being more 'worthwhile' than another to raise funds for, I think we're all happy to know that more funds are going to the cause in general than less. (Jahanzeb Sherwani) : Mills College's proceedings will be going to The Citizen's Foundation. (Fiza Asar) :'Post your answer here by clicking edit. Replace this line with your response.' Poster for quake-relief funds : Has anyone designed a large poster to use at donation tables? We're setting up tables at various universities in Pittsburgh (Carnegie Mellon for sure, Univ of Pittsburgh & Chatham College when we get permission) but we need a large display/poster to put up around there so that we can grab the maximum attention. Does anyone have a high quality poster that they'd like to share? We had a meeting today, and thought that something that is very visual, and very emotional, that grabs attention is the best thing to have. It should also be something that can be printed on a large poster page without looking pixelly. I know there are other people in other organizations looking for such graphics too. Please let me know! (Jahanzeb Sherwani) : Sepoy at Chapati Mystery has made a poster with several different sizes (big enough for printing): *2448 x 3420 jpg 6.4MB *pdf 5.2MB *1200 x 1676 jpg 747KB *648 x 905 jpg 343KB *248 x 347 jpg 100KB : All the links were taken from this post. Short 3 minute documentary summarizing the catastrophe : Does anyone have the footage and skills to make a 3 minute video giving a very quick summary of everything that's happened in the region, as well as the ongoing relief efforts, and answers the question "if I donate, where will my money go?" If there are people who have skills in film editing who need footage, and people who have lots of footage, but need film editors, please say so in a paragraph beneath this question. If you need webspace to transfer huge files over, let me know -- I have access to lots of webspace. I believe this can be very useful in terms of putting an initial hi-quality video that summarizes information, which people in the US can then send to their non-Pakistani colleagues to forward virally. A lot of people didn't watch the footage on TV over the weekend, and now the story isn't as "hot" as it was earlier. We can keep it alive in the public's imagination, but we need a well produced, mini documentary that explains everything a potential donor will want to know. (Jahanzeb Sherwani) :'Post your answer here by clicking edit. Replace this line with your response.' Anything else? :Do you have other ideas or suggestions or anything of that sort? PLEASE start writing here, so we can hear the voices of everyone involved in this effort. (Jahanzeb Sherwani) :'Post your answer here by clicking edit. Replace this line with your response.'